Talking clock



April 23, 1935. C, BATTEGAY 1,998,435

TALKING CLOCK Filed Nov. 11, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet l sw-l,

INVENTOR.

BY I flan ATTORNEY.

April 23, 1935. c. BATTEGAY v 1,998,435

` TALKING CLOCK Fi1ed Nov. 11, 1952 2 sheets-sheet 2 l??? l 'l 15' -5'INVENTOR.

Comin/rf Baffegay WMM Patented Apr. '1935. l A y I UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE TALKING CLOCK Constant Batteur Levallois-Perret, France, as-

signor to Societe Anonyme des Ateliers Brillie Freres, levallois-Perret(Seine), France, a cor poration of France v f f Application November 11,1932, Serial No. 642,186

In France November A12, 1931 Claims. (Cl. 58-14) I'hls invention is atalking clock and relates from this motor ata predetermined timed speed.more particularly to apparatus for the giving out 'The 'cylinder I is of non-transparent character of time signals acoustically at statedintervals. and is preferably of metal. I have found alumi-4 Iheapparatus is adapted for various uses among num to give verysatisfactory results forA this pur- 5 which, without limitation, may bementioned the pose. Inl the surface yof cylinder are formed 5utilization ofthe apparatus for giving correct' two series of grooves nIl and i5, the former of time in telephone systems, so that if asubscriber .which corresponds to the hours of a day and the desires toknow the time', he' may call or dial a latter of which corresponds Vtothe minutes, there particular number and will be, as a result thereof I,being either twelve lor twenty-four grooves in seautomatically given thecorrect time. ries Il and sixty grooves in the series I5. There 10 Thepresent invention embodies many improvemay be, if desired, a thirdseries of grOOVeS COII'B- ments in systems of this general class, one ofspending to an introductory clause or sentence as, which improvementsconsists in the utilization of for example, It is exactly and there maybe a light beam acting upon a photo electric cell or a fourth series ofgrooves, sixty in number, corll other light sensitive cell andcontrolled in' turn responding to seconds, if desired, but for the pur-15 by a moving clock controlled element so as to give pose ofillustration, the two series of grooves I4 signals of unusual clarity oftone, without and I5 shown in the drawings will suilice to makescratching or other mechanical noises and to acthe invention clear.complish this result in a relatively simple and In the grooves arepositioned appropriate inhighly eilicient manner. The invention alsoprodicia of time and I have found it highly practical 20 vides for thegiving out of a time signal at an and convenient to employ in thesegrooves exact instant, so that correct timeV may be cornrecords orstrips of the same kind as are used municated. in the reproduction ofsound with talking mo- Features of the present invention,` other thantion pictures. These strips are cutinto shape those adverted to, will beapparent from the hereto fit into the grooves and are permanently se- 25inafter detailed descriptionfand claims, when read cured therein andthey may be in the formof in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.a film or said records may be on phonographic The accompanying drawingsillustrate one paper, so as to give a good contrast for the repracticalembodiment of the invention, but the ection of light.

construction therein shown is to be understood 'Extending across-theframe directly below the 30 asillustrative, only, and not as definingthe limits cylinder are two guides 6 and 'I which are parof theinvention. allel to oner another and on these guides are Figure 1 is afront elevation of a talking clock mounted two housings I6 and I'I, theformer of embodying this invention. which is adapted to c'ooperate withthe series o! Figure 2 is a side elevation of thestructure grooves Iland the -latter of which cooperates 35 shown in Figure 1. with theseries of grooves Iii` 'Ihese two casings Figure 3 is asecton on theline 3-3 of Figure 1. or housings Aare mounted for travel transverselyReferring to the drawings, I indicates the frame of the frame on theguides 8 and 1. 'Ihey may be o f the apparatus which may be of anysuitable secured to the guides in any suitable way, but,

40 form dependingupon the conditions of its mount; forthe purpose ofillustration, are shown as 40 ing. As shown, however, it embodies twoparallel havinga dove-tail connection therewith, so that uprights 2mounted in spaced relation by cross they are free to slide and at thesaine time are bars 3, I and 5 and by guides 6 and 'I hereinafter guidedfor rectilinear movement: In each casing referred to. is mounted anoptical system comprising a source Mounted for rotation on ahorizontalaxis in the of light IBfwhich may conveniently be a. lamp. 45 upperportion of the frame is a drum or cylinder Suitable lenses I9 arepositioned to focus the 8 which cylinder is mounted on a shaft 9jourrays from the lamp upon the surface of the cylnailed in the oppositesides of the frame and carinder in a relatively small beam or rayadapted rying near one end a pinion IU. This shaft is to focus in onegroove at a -time and positioned 0 radapted tobe driven bya motorsynchronized by a, adjacent the point of impingement of the beam V50clock. The connection between the motor and on the cylinder is aphotoelectric cell 20, 'so the shaft 9 may vary as desired, but for thepursituated that as the beam is projected upon the pose of illustration,the motor is indicated at II record strip in a groove, it will bereected on and drives a pinion I2 which meshes witha gear to thephotoelectric cell, so that as the cylinder I3 fixed on the shaft, sothat the cylinder is driven rotates the record in the particular groovewith 55.

which the beam impinges will be reected upon the photoelectric cell insuch manner as to govern and control its operation. Each cell isincluded in suitable electric circuits for amplifica-- tion andtransmission. As circuits of this kind for the amplification andtransmission of current passage through an electric cell are old andwell known, it has not been considered necessary to show them in thedrawings. Any appropriate conventional photoelectric cell system may beemployed in this connection.

As the grooves of the series I4 and I5 correspond to hours and minutesof the day, it is necessary to move the casings I6 and I1 in timedrelation to the operations of the cylinder. This is accomplished in amanner next to be described. Meshing with the pinion III is a gear 2|,which has a pinion 22 meshing with the gear 23 which carries rigidlytherewith a cam 24. With this cam cooperates a cam follower 25 mountedon the bell crank 26 pivoted at its elbow at 21. To the opposite end ofthe bell crank is pivoted a link 28 which operates as a pawl against aratchet 29. A spring 39 holds the follower in engagement with the camand a spring 3| is interposed between the link 28 and a locking pawl 32,so that as. the cam 24 is rotated the bell crankl 26 is oscillated andimparts a step-by-step forward movement to the ratchet 29, the lockingpawl 32 precluding retrograde rotation of this ratchet. The ratchet 29is mounted on a stub shaft 33 which carries a bevel gear 34 meshing witha bevel gear 35 on a second perpendicular stud shaft 3B mounted betweenthe spacers 4. Rigid with this bevel gear 35 is a cam 31 adapted tocooperate to act upon a cam follower 3B. This cam follower 38 is carriedby a link 39, the lower end of which is pivoted at 40 between thespacers 5 and the upper end of which is forked or bifurcated tostraddlea pin 4I on the casing I1. A second link 42 is also pivoted at43 between the spacers 5 and its upper end is bifurcated to cooperatewith a similar pin 4I on the casing I6, all as clearly shown inFigure 1. This second link 42 carries a cam follower 44, whichcooperates with a cam 45. This cam has rigid therewith a ratchet wheel46 and is operated by a pawl 41 secured to the link 39. A locking pawl48 locks the ratchet 46 against backward turning and is held in place bya spring 49.

It will be apparent that with the arrangement of parts shown anddescribed, the rotation of the cylinder will bring about a simultaneousoperation of the bell crank 26 which will operate through the link 28and ratchet wheel 29 to rotate the bevel pinion 34 and the gear 35 toactuate the cam 31 and through this operation to move both the links 39and 42 for the purpose of shifting the casings I6 and I1 in timedrelation to the rotation of the cylinder. It may be here noted that thesprings 50 serve to hold the respective cam followers 38 and 44 inengagement with their cams. l

When theV drum is driven at a constant speed by a motor synchronized bya clock, it drives all of the gears, ratchets, links, etc., governingthe rotation of the cylinder and the synchronized movement of thecasings I6 and I1, so that the beam of light from the source ofillumination in each casing is caused to impinge upon correspondinggrooves to be reflected on to the associated photoelectric cells and thecurrent thereby produced is amplified according to known processes.

As a result of the structure shown, however, the

casing I6 enclosing the optical system corresponding to the hours willbe moved step by step into juxtaposition with the grooves of therespective hours in succession, while the casing I1 enclosing theoptical system appropriate to the minutes will be moved step by stepinto juxtaposition with the corresponding grooves, so that at anyparticular minute the hour and minute can be transmitted.

The `foregoing detailed description ,and the drawings set forth theinvention in its preferred, practical form, but the invention is to beunderstood as fully commensurate with the appended claims.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In an assembly of the character described, a suitable supportingframe, a rigid opaque cylinder mounted on said frame for rotation on itsaxis and provided on its surface with a plurality of series ofrelatively fixed axially spaced apart records corresponding to differentfractions of time, an optical system for each series of records, guideson the frame for mounting said optical systems for movement in adirection parallel to the axis of the cylinder and in constantly spacedcontiguous relation to the surface of the cylinder, each optical systemcomprising means for projecting a beam of light upon a juxtaposedrecordl and light sensitive time enumerating means positioned to beimpinged by and operated in accordance with the beam reected from saidrecord, cams operable to control the movement of said optical systemslongitudinally of the cylinder while the light sensitive means remainsspaced a constant distance from the cylinder, a time controlled motorfor rotating the cylinder at a constant speed, and operative connectionsbetween said motor and cams for driving the cams to cause movement ofthe optical systems in predetermined timed relation.

2. In an assembly of the character described, a rigid opaque cylindermounted to rotate and provided on its surface with a plurality of series0f axially rigidly attached, spaced apart reflectable recordscorresponding to different fractions of time, a time controlled motorfor driving said cylinder at a predetermined speed, and a plurality ofoptical systems movable contiguously to the surface of the cylinder at aconstant distance therefrom and in timed relation to the rotations ofthe cylinder and in a direction parallel to the Y axis of the cylinderto selectively position said optical systems successively injuxtaposition with the records of the respective series, each opticalsystem comprising means for projecting a beam of light upon a juxtaposedrecord, and light sensitive time enumerating means positioned to beimpinged by and operated in accordance with the beam reflected from saidrecord.

3. In an assembly of the character described. a rigid non-transparentcylinder mounted to rotate on its axis and provided with rigidlyattached axially spaced apart light reilectable records corresponding tosuccessive hours of a day and successive minutes of the hour, aplurality of photoelectric cells mounted respectively to travel parallelto the axis of the cylinder at a constant distance therefrom andcontiguously to its face into juxtaposition with the records of thehours and minutes in succession, and means associated with and moving inconjunction with each photoelectric cell for projecting a beam on to thejuxtaposed record, whereby the beam may be reflectedinmodiiiediormontothephotoelectricceilforthepurposeofcontroliingtheoperstionthereot..

Linenssemblyotthcchsrscterdcscribed, srigidcylindricnlreoordmembermountedior rotstiononitsaxlssndedsptedtobedrlvenat a predetermined speedand having rigid therewithsplunlityotse'riesotlightreectablerecordscorrespondingrespectivelytodiilerent trsctionso!time,sndmopticaisystemassociated witheachseries otrecordsexteriorly ofthe cylindersndeochofwhichopticelsystensismount-.edformovementpamlieltotheaxisofthecylindrlcal record member selectivelyinto juxtaposition with each record o't this respective series,eschopticai systemincludingmesnsforprojectimabeamofiightontheselectedreoormand light sensitive timeenumersting mans positioned torecelvesbenmotiightretlectedi'romsaidrecord linsnsssembly-ofthechsracterdescrlbed. s. shsftmounted to rotate,n rigid cylindrical record member mountedonsaidshaft to rotate therewithand havingaplm'slity of seriesof reiiectcble records correspondingrespectively to diilerenttrsctionsoitime,snopticalsystemassocistedwithechseriotrecordsexteriorlyof the cylinder, guides formounting said systems formovementpenlleltotheuisoitheshaftandenchopticalsysteminciudingmesnstorwoiectingabeam'oflightoneselectedreeordandalight sensitive time emmerstingmecnspositied toreive the light reflectedi'rom seid record, mexoms tu' driving the cylinder shaft and cylinder etdeiiniteiimedspeedecemdrivmiromsnidshttnbellcrnnkopersblebysaidcsmtobeosciilstedtherebmapewloperatedbysaidbelicnnharctchetadsptedtobegivenstepbystepmovementbyseidpewLsbevelpinionrlgidwith the ratchet and driven thereby,l. bevel geumeshingwithsidninionaliddr'lventher'eby,s|camrlgidwiththebevelgearanddrlventhereby,

stlxedfulcruxn,:n.leverpivotedmtoneendonslnidIilmedfulcmmnndsecuredatitsotherendtoone of the optical ai'ollowerlsaocinted withl aidleverandcoopmtingwiththecamotthebevelgeartobeoperntedtherebyforthepmpe of moving said optical system onssidguidems leverplvotedtotheseeondopticcisystanmd havingva cam`follower. a cam cooperating withsaidcsmtoliowertomovetheleversndshiftthe optical system on its guides,s, ratchet wheelrigidwithtnelsstmuoneacsmsmsssrstchetcooperstingwithseidrstchetwheelsndsecuredtotheleveroftheiirstoptlcdsysten.

cons-rm ns'n'nosr.

